Fight Club
by Wilhelmina Willoughby
Summary: The coven is out on the hunt. Emmett has been assigned babysitting duty, but boxing on the television has given him grand ideas and the newest Cullen, on her own for mere seconds, has gone astray... One-shot!


_Hello, all! I love the relationship that I can see between Emmett and Bella post-bite. It just a very warm big brother/little sister thing, and I love that Emmett is such a bear of a goofball and Bella a straight-shooter. Anyway, I would like to say that this spawned out of nowhere (this is partially true), but I think it's in response to the complete lack of Emmett and Bella stories out there! This will be my first, and hopefully not my last, posted Twilight fic. Perhaps I'll start on that saga I've been thinking over... :)_

_As always, enjoy.  
Mina_

_(Constructive criticism is greatly, enormously, humbly, truly appreciated and encouraged. Be vicious. Rip it apart. ButIhopeyouloveitallthesame.)_

* * *

Racing. Springer. Public access. Ice skating - tempting, but no. Soap. Soap. Boxing. Docu- Ah, boxing.

Emmett sat back and kicked his feet onto the coffee table, grateful that his ankles were safe from Esme, who was out hunting with the rest of the family. Or coven. Superhuman coven-family. Superhuman coven-family of super-strong vampires who could form their own super-amazing boxing team and take over the world. A grin pulled at his face and he flexed a muscle, letting himself get lost in his absurd fantasy. Quiet ringing came from somewhere within the couch and he pushed it out of his already crowded head - this was big! Why hadn't he thought of this before? Practice. He would get Edward to practice with him when they got home, and Jasper could referee - Alice would have to go away so _he_ could decide who won, because of course he's the strongest man alive - and Rose, Rose would find it sexy - he knew Esme would disapprove, but that didn't matter because who could hurt him? Nobody.

Emmett pushed himself to his feet, nimbly catching the couch before it slammed into the wall behind him, and roared, throwing punches into the air. To a human eye, the motions would be near invincible; to Emmett, he wasn't moving fast enough. He only wished that they hadn't all went hunting today so he could share his brilliant idea with someone. Vampire boxing. He would make an absolute _fortune_.

A loud crack threw him off balance, so lost was he in his thoughts. Something was on the wind. Something… He whirled to the front door, sniffing the air - _oh no. _But they hadn't all gone hunting today, had they; it was his turn to stay, and… Edward. Edward would murder him. Edward would string him by his toes and feed him to the wolves.

The door lay splintered across the floor as he reached the foyer. Emmett tried to ignore the smell of human blood mingling amidst the wreckage, tried to ignore the dry, sandpapery feeling crawling up his tongue. It was his turn to stay home with Bella while everyone else went hunting. It was his responsibility to look after his younger sister, his Belly, and while he knew that she didn't like to be baby-sat, they both knew it was for the best. Vampire boxing. It was such a stupid idea. He needed to learn to pay attention or else things like this would happen, they always did, and she had been right there, right _there_, and went outside to get a book out of her car, and he had turned the television to boxing, and -

_Dammit, Emmett. Focus._

"Bella?"

The word hadn't even left his mouth when something made of concrete or stone or two-ton rock slammed into him with the force of the Saleen S7 Twin Turbo Rosalie threw at him last week. He stumbled back and dug his heels into the floor, wincing as he heard the expensive wood split, and locked his arms around the slight, wriggling thing grasping at his chest.

"Bella," he gasped.

Blood. Human blood, or animal blood, maybe both - it was both, he could barely tell them apart, but she had probably gone after a deer first, then the human. New instincts stopped his breath. Bright red streaks ran across her cheeks as if she had grasped her face, her hair was a mess of twigs and tangles, her lips were bloody and full and shaking, and her eyes, not but minutes ago a darker shade of gold, were now a muddled crimson. She was gasping for air, pressing her face against his shirt and holding her arms around his back like a straightjacket, breathing in his scent. Emmett was almost sick to his stomach. He had let this happen. To his sister.

"Emmett, oh, Emmett, I couldn't s-stop! C-Carlisle is going to be so disappointed, and Esme, and _Edward_ - I just, I smelled the deer and h-he was standing there - Emmett, the wind - I had to, it was so hard not to -"

"Calm down. Bella, listen to me. Breathe. Is he- is he dead?"

Bella whined and dug her face into his neck. "Yes."

The bottom of his stomach dropped to his toes in horror, in disgust at himself and his stupid, idiotic - _do something. Don't just stand here._ He squeezed Bella against his chest and pulled her away from the smashed doorway, down the porch steps and to the driveway. What now? What would Carlisle do? He hated this planning thing, that's why he was the muscles, not the brains. He was good with ideas once they got started, but coming up with them instantaneously… A frustrated growl rattled Emmett's frame. Bella's whimper spurred his mind to move.

Emmett tried to backtrack. He figured she had pushed the door open with bloody hands, in no way able to control even her strength, and ran around the house until she could calm down, all while he was watching television, and how _could_ he be so irresponsible?

_Focus, Emmett._

And Alice had seen it. His phone rang, stuffed somewhere within the couch cushions, and he had ignored it. Put it on silent, even, and they were probably calling now, were probably on the way, but… they were in Alaska. Denali. Emmett remembered waving them off, telling them that he would be fine with Bella, that they would have fun, and Bella, poor Bella, had grinned at him and said yes, we'll have fun, maybe we'll go catch some bears, Emmett and Bella Time. His family had trusted him with this. And he had failed. Spectacularly.

"Emmett," Bella groaned. "I still smell him. It's everywhere. I'm so hungry, Emmett, _please_ -"

He let her go for a brief second to whip his shirt off and pressed it into her face. "Wipe your lips off and try to get it off your hands."

His hand kept an iron grip around her arm as she scrubbed at her hands and her face with such ferocity that he wondered if her skin would come off. He pulled her face into his chest again once she got most of the wet blood off, remembering the times Rose would make him breathe in her scent when he couldn't control it, and hoped that he was doing the right thing. He threw his shirt behind them, then stiffened. The breeze. The _smell_.

Without a thought, he was running. Bella was weightless in his arms; a building would be weightless in his arms at this point, with all his energy. Overcast day, he noted, and made his legs pump faster, the dried blood from Bella's fingers and face and throat burning nonexistent tears in his eyes. He couldn't make his brain work fast enough. Idea. He needed an idea to jumpstart a plan.

"Where do I go?" he murmured, running through the woods, following a direction he hadn't consciously decided upon. _Turn north. Head for Alaska, meet them halfway, because you can't handle this alone._

Bella's breathing slowed just as Emmett's pace picked up, and then stopped altogether. "Emmett," she said, and her voice was rough but hers again. "Emmett, slow down. Find some water."

Of course. Even half out of her mind Bella was still logical. An image of human Bella in his Jeep, strapped in tight, dim dashboard lights illuminating the tears on her face, flew into his mind with startling accuracy. Her voice, near hysterics but strong, formulating a plan. Her control. From now on, he promised himself, he would always listen to her. Perhaps not agree, but always, always listen. And maybe he could do his _fucking job_ every once and a while and make sure she doesn't kill anybody or hurt herself -

"Emmett."

He failed to keep the smile off his face. "On it."

The smooth scent of water floated somewhere to his right. A few dashes took them to a small brook, the clear water cutting a meandering trail through the woods. The quiet here was so damned irritating, it was something Jasper would enjoy -

"_Emmett_," Bella interrupted again, far too much like Edward. She pushed against his chest, still holding her breath. "Put me down."

Acquiescing took more than a moment. He had to make sure she was in control of herself, had to make sure that she wouldn't bolt as soon as he placed her on her feet again, her blood thirst stronger than her mind. Inhaling to test the area, there didn't seem to be anything living nearby and her eyes weren't wild; his muscles ached as he loosened his hold on her, and she slipped easily to the springy forest floor.

Cold, small hands gripped his forearms to steady herself. They stood like that, face-to-chest, for what could've been a long time. Emmett was counting, though, because he hated silence and that was what he did when things got quiet like this and he couldn't find something to occupy himself. Forty-three seconds. He didn't know what to say to her. Sorry wouldn't be enough. Never would it be enough.

She started instead. "I'm sorry."

Emmett hated that look in her eyes. He caught it just before she looked down in guilt, in shame, and he wanted to tell them that they all screwed up every once and a while, wanted to put his hand on her head and tell her that it was okay, because that was what Carlisle would do, what Carlisle did for him. He had fallen off the wagon more than once. But she was new to the family, and though he loved her just as he loved Alice, was just as protective over her - perhaps even more so - would she listen, even if he knew what the right words were? Thirteen seconds passed and he couldn't say anything.

"I'm so sorry," she said. A slight catch hinted at the impossible tears in her voice.

Emmett melted. His arms were around her at once. "It's okay," he murmured, smoothing his hand over her hair. Her shoulder blades poked into his arm. Had she always been this small? Alice was small, but this Bella felt tiny, like she'd cave into herself if he let her go, and he realized that she would. _She is blaming herself, and she will be feeling a thousand, million times worse than you had when you screwed up because she is Bella. _

"It's okay," he repeated, again and again and again. "It's okay. Shh. It'll be alright. Emmett and Bella Time isn't supposed to be like this. It's okay. Everything's fine."

Bella pulled away to look up at him and shook her head. "I killed someone. I'm a monster."

Emmett stared at her, momentarily taken aback at the self-loathing in Bella's voice. She looked savage. Angry, pained crimson eyes flickered. The blood was dried on her face. Whatever color her shirt had been before was hard to tell, as it was stained completely. Her bare feet were dirty and stark white against the grass. This was what Alice would see, what she would show Edward. This was what Bella had always been afraid of becoming.

"Look at you," Emmett said, pulling her to the edge of the brook. "Take your shirt off."

An eyebrow rose in response.

"Good to see you still have your humor. Let's go. Shirt off. Or do you want to stand around looking like a bad horror movie rip-off? Because I know you remember Horror Fest last month - "

She slowly pulled her shirt off, unsuccessfully hiding an eye-roll, and stood before him in a black bra. Emmett tugged the shirt out of her hands and dunked it into the water, scrubbing to get the smell out before putting it anywhere near Bella's face. "You don't have to be self-conscious, you know. I do have a sister, who, incidentally enough, went through an interesting nudist phase -"

Bella bent down next to him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes were still downcast. "I'm sorry, Emmett. I was so afraid of this, and now -"

He ignored the way she shuddered as he wiped the wet shirt across her face. "You're not a monster," he said. _She and Edward are so alike. She will be brooding about this for months._ "You're Bella. How could you be anything close to a monster?"

She pushed his hands from her face, took her shirt back, and stood, cleaning the rest of the blood from her hands. Pink water, tainted with blood, dripped into the ground as she wrung her T-shirt out. "I killed that man," she said. "I'm just as much of a killer as James, or Victoria, or - or the Volturi."

"You are nothing like the Volturi," Emmett said, moving in one fluid motion to grab her arms. He wanted to shake her, to impress into her head what he was feeling. It would be so much easier to just _feel _at people - why did he have to figure out how to speak what he was trying to say, to untangle words and sentences and blah, blah, _blah_? Too complicated. Envy of Jasper filled him. He would rather be anybody else at the moment. Bella deserved another brother, someone who would actually look after her like he was supposed to, like she deserved. Someone who could say the right words.

"I never wanted to kill anyone," Bella said, slumping to the ground. She pulled her legs in, wrapped her arms around her calves, and rested her chin on her knees. Her sorrowful, muddy eyes stared at him as he sat across from her. "I just wanted to be in your family. But it's so hard sometimes."

"Being new is hard," Emmett started, slowly. He picked at a hole in his jeans. Tore some grass to shreds. Tried to channel Carlisle. He could do this. "You want so bad. You want and you want and you want, and even though we have alternatives, it never goes away. You can feel it even when your mind is somewhere else, when you're at your happiest, when you're with your family or your wife or your brothers. You can drink a whole bear dry - a whole forest of grizzlies - and it will never be enough. There will always be the real thing just out of your reach, the one drink that will make that itchiness go away and will cure your dry tongue. But we can never have it.

"Does it make you a monster that you made a mistake? It makes you human, despite being what we are. We're still _people_, Bella, and in fighting against this fate we've been given, we will make mistakes. A lot of them. Do you know how many mistakes I've made in my lifetime? How many Carlisle has made? Edward? We're far from perfect. No, don't interrupt me. You will _never_ be like the Volturi, you will _never_ be a monster, and if you ever run away from me like that again I will personally chain you to a rock and parade a deer in front of you until you beg Master Emmett for mercy, do you hear me?"

It took a moment - twelve long seconds - but the giggle he was longing for sounded quietly underneath Bella's canopy of hair. It was like, well, bells to his ears. Beautiful, glowing, chiming bells. Emmett's answering grin was huge and it didn't matter that she wasn't paying attention to him anymore because his chest was lighter and Bella would be okay. He leapt to his feet.

"Deal?"

Slowly she met his eyes, holding out her clean hand, and he pulled her to his feet. Twenty-two seconds. A bird chirped far off. Popcorn chicken. Wouldn't that be something? Bite-Size Birds for the Brood, by Cullen, Inc. He was amazing, so -

"Thanks, Emmett."

He smiled. It slid into a smirk. Bella wasn't wearing her shirt. Bella's shirt was still laying on the ground. Bella didn't have a weapon. These things processed themselves into a master plan - a quick plan of attack - and only a second did Emmett waste on wondering why his quickest, easiest plans were never the useful ones. Before she could see it on his face, Emmett pushed around her and snatched her shirt off the ground, twirled it between his hands, and snapped it - _SMACK!_ - across her backside.

"EMMETT!" she shrieked.

His cackle echoed throughout the forest. Bella crouched low and emitted a fierce snarl - something from Emmett's daydream-nightmares - and launched herself upon him. He wasn't fast enough to duck out of the way; they went tumbling, tangled, into the brook.

"Emmett? Bella?"

Their heads whipped in unison to the woman pushing through the trees. Rose. The rest of the coven followed, their expressions varying - amused, enraged, relieved. Emmett helped Bella up out of the brook and she flew, soaking wet, into Edward's arms.

"Edward," he started to explain, then stopped. What was there to say? His thoughts were there for the reading. He reached up to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. Edward was going to kill him, he had already figured, and judging by the look on his face, it would be soon. But before everyone could jump down his throat at once, Bella stepped towards Emmett, took his giant hand in her own, and looked around at her family.

"I had an accident," she started, staring at her other hand. "As I'm sure Alice saw. In the woods. I had gone to get something out of the car, and the wind - I just - "

She looked up and found Jasper's eyes. Emmett watched as they stared at one another - Jasper, of all people, would know what she was trying to say, the struggle going on within her, and Emmett gave her tiny hand a gentle squeeze as waves of calm tingled down his muscles.

Bella smiled gratefully at the both of them and continued. "There was a hunter nearby, or I guess that he was a hunter, and he - I just - it was my fault that I was alone. Emmett helped me out, and I'm glad he was with me."

Emmett looked to Edward. His older brother. Bella's husband. Twenty-seven seconds passed, and when Edward didn't lunge at him, Emmett grinned a mischievous grin and threw an arm around Bella. They were probably a sight: two bare-chested and sopping wet vampires caught wrestling in a brook.

"We were practicing, just now, in case any of you were wondering. Vampire boxing. Let me tell you, it's going to be huge."

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End file.
